


Stolen Heart

by To_the_end_of_the_line



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: M/M, Self-Harm, Suicide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-21
Updated: 2017-11-23
Packaged: 2019-02-05 04:32:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12787029
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/To_the_end_of_the_line/pseuds/To_the_end_of_the_line
Summary: "I know you don't realise it yet but I saw it, that's what this was leading up to and I can't let it. I can't love you. Shit, I can't let myself love you, Liam."





	1. Chapter 1

“Theo?” He stops dead in his tracks, afraid to make any sudden movement. “Theo, look at me.” He reaches out trembling hands towards the chimera, cautious. Theo doesn't move, eyes completely consumed with the blade in his hands.  
“Go, Liam.” It's barely a whisper on his lips. Sweat drenches evert inch of the chimera, his shirt clinging to him.   
Liam takes a step forward.  
“I'm not leaving.” He's never listened to Theo before, why would he ever start now. He doesn't think even Scott could stop him taking another step forward.   
“Liam,” Theo growls a warning at the beta, his eyes glowing yellow. His grip tightens around the blade, edging it closer to his chest- to his heart. His hands are steady but his heart is racing. Liam can feel it reverberating through his skull, the sound almost deafening.   
That's when the smell hits him. Blood. The thick metallic smell clogging his throat, turning his stomach. He can feel the bile in his throat.   
He's now right in front of Theo. He drops to his knees in front of the boy, not touching. Up close he can see everything. The tired lines woven into the chimera's skin, the pain etched into his face but worst of all is the overwhelming emotion in his eyes. Tears crowd the corners, threatening to spill down his already tear-stained cheeks.   
Liam just sits there- quiet and waiting. He doesn't say anything, just lets the sound of Theo's rapid heartbeat and heavy breathing wash over him.   
“Why did you save me?” Theo doesn't look at him but Liam sees everything. He sees vulnerability and in this moment he sees none of the old Theo. In this moment Liam is reminded that Theo is still only 18 years old- they're both children who've had a bad go of it and were forced to grow up too soon.   
“We could use you.” Resignation clouds Theo's eyes, as if his worth relies solely on Liam's answer to this one question, and maybe in his eyes it does. Maybe his self-esteem is that fragile. “I would save you now even if we couldn't.” God, he never would have predicted this. “I saved you because you were useful but I let you live because I couldn't hate you any more. I couldn't, I can't handle not having you around.”  
Liam sees Theo's shoulders slump. And reaches for the blade.  
“Can I have the knife, Theo?” He asks gently and the chimera eases his white knuckle grip. Liam slides the blade as far across the room as he can, seeking solace in the sound of it hitting the far wall.  
Theo crumples without the life line.  
“It's not mine.” Liam doesn't say a word, not wanting to break this fragile thing they have between them. Theo's is afraid to be vulnerable but he's letting Liam in. He's letting Liam see him at his weakest and trusting him with his life. “It was Tara's and I took it.”   
“Theo,” Liam breathes. Theo's head snaps towards him, their eyes locking for the first time. Fury rumbles on the chimera's face.  
“She was my little sister and I killed her. She trusted me and I fucking ripped her heart out of her chest. And you know what's worse? I didn't feel any guilt. I didn't feel any remorse. I felt superior. I felt worthy. I felt... fuck, I felt like she deserved it.” His breathing strings together in heavy pants, claws bared and piercing the skin of his thighs. “She was a child and I thought she deserved death, I thought she deserved to be killed by me.” The last words are said slow as if they have finally sunk in. The realisation. The pain in his heart. Everything that lead him to where he is now, rested upon that one decision.  
“Let's clean you up.” Liam doesn't want to say a word. Not with the adrenaline coursing through his system and not with the state of the boy in front of him. He doesn't want to excuse Theo's action but needs to show him that it doesn't define him. They'll talk in the morning.  
Liam sits Theo on the edge of the bath tub and helps him gently ease out of his shirt and trousers. 'Chimeras heal slower than werewolves' Liam has to remind himself because there is so much blood. From the wounds inflicted on his thighs, to the blood on his hands and the slashes on his chest. He can see the skin already beginning to stitch itself back together. He grabs a cloth from the basin cupboard, soaking it with warm water. Kneeling in front of the boy he begins to clean the blood from his legs but Theo's hands on his wrist stop him. He looks up, the steely gaze causing his heart to lurch in his chest. The weight of it is immense.   
“Why do you care?” The question is so much heavier than the gaze. There are so many answers, or really one really long, confusing one.  
“I don't know.” And he really doesn't. After everything Theo did, after everything Theo has done, he really shouldn't but he can't help himself. It's like falling. He doesn't know if hitting the ground will be good or bad but he hopes it's good. He hopes it's great. “I just can't help myself.”   
They finish cleaning up in relative silence and when they're done Liam leads Theo towards the guest bedroom he has been sleeping in. He helps Theo into the bed, avoiding his wounds as much as possible, and turns to leave.  
“Stay.” Once again a hand grabs his wrist and the grip is tight- too tight, as if terrified of begin alone. Maybe he is. It wouldn't surprise any of them. They know what's really out there and they knows it's fucking terrifying. But when they're together it's just a little bit more okay.  
Liam climbs into the bed around the other side. There is a wealth of space between them but Theo visible relaxes regardless. His hand seeks Liam's under the covers, in the dark and he intertwines their fingers.  
“I can't love you.” Liam hears the boy whisper into the dark after twenty minutes of silence. “I can't let myself love you.”   
“Not tonight, Theo.” And Liam lets himself fall into a long overdue slumber, knowing that there is a conversation waiting for him in the morning.

The space beside him is empty when he wakes up. He can still feel the ghost of Theo's skin upon his and clenches his hands at the thought.   
There is total silence. Liam can't hear a single heart beat.   
“THEO!?” He yells into the emptiness but there's nothing. He's on his feet instantly, a different sort of panic flooding his chest and sealing itself around his every thought.  
Theo never had many possessions but what little he had is gone. His entire room emptied of every trace of him whilst Liam slept. And God, Liam needs Scott right now.  
He runs the short distance to his room not willing to let too much time pass. Who knows how far Theo could get if given the chance.   
His phone is exactly where he left it but he knows something's different. There's a voicemail. Liam's hands tremble as he opens it.  
“I can't give you this heart because it doesn't belong to me. It was Tara's and I took it. I know you don't realise it yet but I saw it, that's what this was leading up to and I can't let it. I can't love you. Shit, I can't let myself love you, Liam, because this love it-it was never mine to give. It was hers. It should've been hers. You should've left me to rot because I deserved it. Every second of it. But you were always too good, too kind. You knew mercy.   
I can't let myself stay. I wouldn't even know how if I tried.  
Fuck!  
This is so fucked up.   
Just don't try and find me.”   
The line cuts out. The phone falls from Liam's hands. Somehow he knows he can't stay here. Something is telling him to go. He grabs his keys and runs out of the house and into his car, taking off at lethal speed but something within him knows he has to be fast.  
He's at the bridge before his brain can even process him having left at all. Doesn't that just say so much because there he is.  
Theo.  
Staring at the water and wishing it was him- not her, never her.  
And then he falls to his knees and Liam's running because something's wrong. It's scent or the chemo-signals or his heart or something.   
He just about makes it in time to catch him.  
“I told you not to find me.” Theo coughs. Black blood clings to his teeth. Liam cradles him close in his arms.  
“What did you do?” The stench is overwhelming. Liam hates it. Blood seeps through Theo's shirt. “What the fuck did you do?” His breath is heavy, sobs threatening to escape at any moment.  
“It wasn't mine.” His reaction is instantaneous, hoisting Theo in his arms and running towards his car. 

Theo's face is pale when they arrive at Deaton's. His breathing is laboured and his heart is sluggish as if just barely holding on.   
Liam storms through the doors with Theo held close to his chest. The mountain ash is broken and the bench is clear as if the veterinarian had been expecting them.  
“Save him. Just, save him.” Liam chokes on the words, his eyes refusing to break away from the trembling boy on the bench before him.   
The shirt is ripped from the chimera and a bucket is thrust into Liam's hands as he vomits. The skin where Theo's heart should be is shredded. The decay in itself is pungent but the black blood- that smell will haunt him for the rest of his life. Knife wounds are heavily embedded into his chest and Liam can see the blackened heart barely beating through them. Barely is good, it's not at all that's the problem.  
“Wolfsbane.” Deaton muses allowed already mixing a concoction of something that seems too meagre to save the chimera's life.   
Wolfsbane cannot kill a chimera in the same way it can a werewolf. If inflicted correctly or in high amounts, the effect can be lethal. However, the pain it causes is immense, the worst kind of torture. Something Liam wouldn't wish upon anyone.   
He grabs Theo's hand, his veins turning black at the contact. He cares. There was never any question about that. He cares too goddamn much. So much so that he doesn't even have to think to take the boy's pain away, it just happens at the contact. He does it willingly. He accepts the agony with open arms if it means his chimera will heal.   
Deaton slather a mixture of herbs on to Theo's skin and Liam feels hopeless when all Deaton does is mumble, “now we wait” before walking out.   
“Fuck you, Theo.” He's grasp tightens on the chimera's hand, staring down at the boy breathing heavily as his body tries against all odds to heal. The pain just keeps coming- only a cloudy haze to Liam, but worse than being burnt alive to Theo. “You're an asshole.” The words carry a different meaning now, hidden not so discretely within the subtext; something he never would have believed only months ago. He wishes Theo would open his eyes. He wishes his skin would heal faster. He doesn't want to be able to see his heart struggling to beat any more.   
“Liam.” A firm hand is placed on his shoulder. “Stop.” He's sobbing now as the hand pulls him away. He fights against it, the wolf within him running rampage but so weak with Theo's pain. The grip around him is too strong and he is pulled from the room and into a warm set of arms. He feels safe in those arms and crumbles.  
“Scott?” He hates the tremble in his own voice. How did Theo manage this? How did Theo manage to crawl his way under Liam's skin?  
“You don't want to be in there. You don't want to see him like this.” Scott knows he's right. Liam and Theo had become so close so quickly, he's not sure even his beta knew what they had become. “Trust me. It never leaves you.”   
“No.” His voice catches around the word.   
“You didn't need to see that. You didn't need to feel that.”  
He can't hear Theo's heartbeat anymore.


	2. Chapter 2

He could handle the nightmares when they were Theo’s.  
Scott didn’t want to leave Liam alone after that not for weeks but the beta completely shut himself off, refusing to let his alpha in.  
The house no longer smelt of Theo.  
The night it happened, Liam had smothered himself in the scent of Theo, drugging himself into believing he was still there; letting the sheets of the chimera's bed intoxicate him into a laboured slumber. It didn’t hurt so much whilst he was asleep, not when the world around him smelt like Theo.   
The nightmares increased in frequency week by week as traces of Theo began to leave his life. And when the scent of Theo’s bed had become overpowered with Liam, the werewolf had slept in the chimera’s truck.

The sound of an engine startles him awake. He can feel the vibrations through the truck itself and forces himself to stay silent.  
He isn’t alone.  
There is someone in the car with him.  
“I know you’re awake.” Liam’s heart stills at that voice, his blood frozen because no! It can’t be. “You’re gonna give yourself neck ache sleeping like that.”  
“T-Theo?” The words little more than a whisper on his lips because he wants to believe but being wrong would hurt so much more.  
“It’s me, Liam.” He sits up slowly, eyes wide, jaw dropped because there he is. Liam’s mirage.  
Theo glances back at the beta his ever so familiar smirk resting on his lips before turning back to the road ahead.  
“You were dead.”  
“Death doesn’t seem to want to agree with me.” Theo chuckles lightly, a breathy laugh but it’s like music to Liam’s ears.  
“You fucking asshole.” There are tears in the werewolf’s eyes and his voice catches in his throat, completely overwhelmed by the smell of everything Theo. The effect is heady.  
Liam goes to open his mouth again but Theo interjects.  
“In a minute. Not whilst I’m driving.” Theo glances back at Liam in the rear view, the ghost of a smile covering his lips. Liam can't stop the thoughts running rampage in his mind but stays silent at the chimera's request.   
They pull up at the reserve. It's dreadfully silent- only the trees and them. Theo climbs out and Liam follows his lead without hesitation, walking out into the clearing until it's just the two of them facing one another.   
“It's been weeks.” Suddenly Liam is tingling, the most he has felt since it happened. Theo's presence, his scent is pumping electricity through the numbness, chasing it out and replacing it with warmth.  
“I know.” Theo sighs.  
“You were dead. I couldn't hear your heartbeat. You killed-” Theo silences Liam's now sobs by pulling him into his arms and Liam all but collapses in the embrace, burying his face into the crease between the chimera's shoulder and neck and letting the scent consume him.   
“I'm sorry, Liam.” His hand clutches gently at the back of the beta's head, his fingers tangled in hair, holding the boy firmly in his arms. “I'm so sorry.”  
“Why?”   
“I'm broken.” Theo's voice vibrates through Liam's body. “I felt myself falling, losing control. I've not been the same since I went to Hell.” The chimera leans down resting his forehead on the shorter boy's shoulder, allowing himself this moment of weakness. “In some ways that's a good thing but... you shouldn't have brought me back, Liam.” The werewolf growls, his hands balling up into fists at the back of Theo's shirt, clinging to him at those words.   
“I never got to tell you.” Liam mumbles into Theo's neck, pulling back. He needs to look him in the eyes as he says these next words. “I don't need your heart.” He reaches out, placing a hand at the centre of the other boy's chest. He shivers at the contact. The sight of the blackened, shredded heart will never leave him. “But I need you, Theo. I need you here because I don't want to do this on my own any more.” Theo looks away from him, smiling down softly at the ground.  
“You're stronger than you give yourself credit for.” And Liam fucking hates this self-depreciating bullshit. He reaches out, intertwining their hands together,  
“I don't want to be strong. I want you; I choose you; and I'm giving you permission to choose me back.” Theo's eyes lock on his, suddenly cold- almost lifeless- as he wrenches his body away.  
“It isn't mine to give.” How did they get here? Liam yearning for Theo's touch, whilst Theo looks at him like he's poison. “I don't deserve this. I deserve to rot and now I am. I'm in hell where I belong.”   
“Theo...?”   
“How do you know if you're in a dream, Liam?”  
“In dreams you have more fingers.” Theo lifts Liam's hand.  
“Count with me. One, two, three, four, five-”  
“Six.” There's no heartbeat. There never was.


End file.
